Quantum step forward in protecting communications from hackers

 

Summary: Researchers have shown that a new quantum-based procedure for distributing secure information along communication lines could be successful in preventing serious security breaches.

Researchers at the University of York have shown that a new quantum-based procedure for distributing secure information along communication lines could be successful in preventing serious security breaches.

Securing highly sensitive information, such as hospital records and bank details, is a major challenge faced by companies and organisation throughout the world.
Standard communication systems are vulnerable to hacks, where encrypted information can be intercepted and copied. It is currently possible for hackers to make a copy of transmitted information, but it would not be possible to read it without a method of breaking the encryption that protects it.
This means that information might be secure for a period of time, but there is no guarantee that it would be secure forever, as supercomputers in development could potentially decipher particular encryptions in the future.

Researchers at York investigated a prototype, based on the principles of quantum mechanics, that has the potential to side-step the vulnerabilities of current communications, but also allow information to be secure in the future.
Dr Cosmo Lupo, from the University of York's Department of Computer Science, said: "Quantum mechanics has come a long way, but we are still faced with significant problems that have to be overcome with further experimentation.
"One such problem is that a hacker can attack the electronic devices used for information transmission by jamming the detectors that are used to collect and measure the photons that carries information.

"Such an attack is powerful because we assume that a given device works according to its technical specifications and will therefore perform its job. If a hacker is able to attack a detector and change the way it works, then the security is unavoidably compromised."
"The principles of quantum mechanics, however, allows for communication security even without making assumptions on how the electronic devices will work. By removing these assumptions we pay the price of lowering the communication rate, but gain in improving the security standard."
Instead of relying on possibly compromised electronic components at the point at which information needs to be detected and read, the researchers found that if the untrusted detectors existed at a separate point in the communications -- somewhere between the sender and receiver -- the communication was far more secure.
The detector would receive a combination of two signals, one from the sender and one from the receiver. The detector would only be able to read the result of this combined signal, but not its component parts.

Dr Lupo said: "In our work, not only have we provided a first rigorous mathematical proof that this 'detector- independent' design works, but we have also considered a scheme that is compatible with existing optical fibre communication networks.
"In principle our proposal can allow for the exchange of unbreakable codes across the internet without major changes in the actual infrastructure.
"We are still at prototype stage, but by finding ways to reduce the cost of these systems, we are that much closer to making quantum communications a reality."

The research is funded by the EPSRC Quantum Communications hub and by Quantum Innovation Center Qubiz, and published in the journal Physical Review Letters.

An avatar uses your gait to predict how many calories you will burn

 

 

Summary: New avatar-based software looks at how people walk in order to predict their energy expenditure. The software, originally intended for roboticists and for researchers who develop prosthetics and exoskeletons, could have many uses in both medicine and sports.

Humans instinctively adopt the gait that requires the least amount of energy given the walking conditions. Without realizing it, we are constantly tweaking our pace, stride length and foot lift. But could we consciously play with these parameters in order to influence our energy expenditure?

Researchers at EPFL's Biorobotics Laboratory studied eight gait parameters in order to come up with a very sophisticated software program that uses an avatar to predict how much energy people use when they walk depending on their walking style. This research has been published in Scientific Reports. Salman Faraji, the co-lead author, devoted an entire section of his thesis to this topic.

The avatar -- a torso equipped with two legs with feet -- can be freely configured. Users start by entering their height and weight and can then set the walking speed, distance between their feet (stride length and stride width), and foot lift, along with the incline of both the torso and the ground. They can also add mass and simulate the effect of being pushed or pulled at different parts of the body. The number of calories burned and the energy consumption are displayed in real time whenever the parameters are modified.

Making custom exoskeletons

This pioneering software drew on a number of experiments appearing in recent literature, and it offers a huge number of potential applications -- especially in the medical realm. "The software could be used to select the best design for an exoskeleton or a custom prosthetic, in order to reduce the user's effort. With a wearable exoskeleton, for example, we could optimize the location of the battery and actuators, or determine the ideal walking pattern for the user's preferred speed," says Amy Wu, the study's other co-lead author. The software could even determine where a backpack should be worn in order to minimize energy expenditure. "If, on the other hand, your goal is to burn calories, the software could be used to find a series of movements with a high metabolic cost."

Designed for humanoid robots

The software was created in a robotics lab and was initially intended to study the mechanics of human gait for use in humanoid robots. "The way humans walk is extremely complex. The level of control required is a huge challenge for humanoid robots, which often don't get it quite right," says Faraji. "We have a long way to go before we really understand all the parameters that go into human, animal and robot locomotion."

An application can be downloaded in order to try out the simulator here: https://biorob.epfl.ch/research/humanoid/walkman

 

Improvement of humanlike conversations in humanoid robots

Summary: In a symbiotic human-robot interaction project, a multimodal conversation control system and a multi-robot conversation control system were developed to promote a robot with a higher degree of human-like presence as well as a 'sense of conversing'. This project attempted to expand the field of activity of such conversational robots and has resulted in the development of a child-like android 'ibuki', which has equipped with wheels that could enable the android to move around.

"Ibuki" is a child-like android equipped with a moving unit. By acting with the human, having a conversation together and consequently sharing their experience, this robot is expected to become a conversational robot which is able to construct a deeper relationship with the human. With regards to the feasibility and the safety aspects, a set of wheels is adopted as its moving unit. The unit includes a pair of eccentricity wheels for horizontal body motion and a ball screw driven actuator for vertical body motion. This replicates the movement of a human's center of gravity position on the android robot and expresses a human-like movement even with the wheels. Also, having 47 degrees of freedom enables it to have various emotional expressions such as gestures and hand signs, in addition to different facial expressions.

The conversational robot has received considerable attention in the recent research. However, research to date has not sufficiently explored the robot's "sense of conversing," the robot's "existence" and its "sociability." In response to this gap in the research, ERATO ISHIGURO symbiotic human-robot interaction project has launched, in which the project leader Prof. Hiroshi Ishiguro (Osaka Univ.) and his team members have developed a humanoid robot with the ability of a human-like conversation. In this project, we have focused on the affinity process that emerges during the move of the robot with a human. In order to promote an active role of conversational robots, a child-like android named "ibuki" was developed. "ibuki" was designed to be able to walk (move) together with the human by using equipped wheels.

Firstly, a multimodal recognition system utilizing the camera, microphone array, etc. was developed. Next, in order to set a technological foundation to facilitate the interaction of the robot with the human, a conversation control system was developed that can control the speech, motion, gaze, and emotion of the robot based on its intention and desire towards making the human feel more human-like existence of the robot during the interaction. Although the experiment for the verification of the system was conducted for a short period of time, including having conversation with a visitor in a waiting room; it has proved that the android "ERICA" is able to conduct natural conversation and increase the perceived existence of the robot by the human, which are less likely to be achieved by using the other well-known robots.

Furthermore, by using some novel technologies such as the implementation of natural and various types of nodding during the interaction, asking in return with analyzing the linguistical focus terms of the interaction sentence, and the implementation of the reaction detection mechanism, a conversation system was developed for the robot which has resulted in more human-like sense of conversing. Adopting this system in an experiment in which human participants were asked to have a conversation with the robot, and the human participants were interviewed by an interviewer during and after the experiment, a successful induction of the human was approved in speaking with the robot and continuing a human-like conversation for a long period of time; compared to the well-known smart speaker-based systems.

Also, a group of conversational social robots named "CommU"s was adopted to develop a multi-robot conversation control system. This system controls the timing of multiple CommU's conversational behaviors such as the starting of the speech, nodding, and the nonverbal communication behaviors. This was set to perform between-robot turn-taking interactions such as passing the conversation, playing a specific role during the conversation, and even switching the roles of each other. It was found that by showing such between-robot conversations to the interacting human, the human feels that the conversation is actually occurring through an independence of the accuracy of the voice recognition (a technology for conversation without voice recognition). Furthermore, adopting conversations including ambiguous and vague sentences, which are applicable to more than one meaning/intention, by two or more robots have leaded the human to feel no contradiction in the conversation independence of human's speech intention (a technology for conversation without intention detection). By using these techniques, the sense of conversing could be expressed and the perception of the human regarding the conversation could be improved. In other words, it was found that a coordination of two or more robots can establish a social situation and can advance the imagination of the human to interpret the observations with a positive direction, which consequently decreases the discomforts of the conversation.

Finally, to develop the required conversation system technologies for a robot which attempts to "coexist" with the human, and also to investigate a platform for a conversational robot performing in the daily life of the human, "ibuki," a child-like android with a moving unit was developed in this project. It has been developed not only for the purpose of enabling the movement of an android robot but to promote the technologies in the interactions inducing the affinity with the human by walking together. It is expected to achieve an autonomous conversational android, which is able to have activity in human's daily life.

The knowledge acquired from these researches and the development of "ibuki" is expected to be applied on the development of further areas regarding similar social conversational robots, such as for an aim of providing information, life support, and the human learning support.

Livio AI Hearing Aids with Physical and Cognitive Health Monitoring

Starkey, one of the big hearing aid firms, is releasing a new device that works as a combination hearing aid, fitness monitor, and, surprisingly, as a tracker of cognitive health. In addition to all this, the new Livio AI hearing aids feature integrated language translation, connectivity to Amazon Alexa devices, and the ability to measure the benefits you get from using these hearing aids in social situations.

The hardware inside detects the movement of the device, and therefore the motion of the user. In addition to fitness tracking, it can also work to detect slips and falls, potentially serving as an emergency device. Such features work through the matching Thrive smartphone app (emergency fall detection still to be fully integrated). The app also allows for on-the-go adjustments to how the device processes sound, allowing you to tune it to your needs.

Cognitive health is measured by the amount of talking that it detects you doing while in social environments, such as restaurants. The Livio AI can also compare how much you talk with it on, compared to without, so you can get a sense of the real benefit.

It has Bluetooth connectivity built-in, like most advanced hearing aids these days, which you can use to listen to music and audiobooks from external devices.

Researchers 3D print prototype for 'bionic eye'

 
Researchers at the University of Minnesota have fully 3D printed an image sensing array on a hemisphere, which is a first-of-its-kind prototype for a "bionic eye."

The research is published today in Advanced Materials, a peer-reviewed scientific journal covering materials science. The author also holds the patent for 3D-printed semiconducting devices.

"Bionic eyes are usually thought of as science fiction, but now we are closer than ever using a multimaterial 3D printer," said Michael McAlpine, a co-author of the study and University of Minnesota Benjamin Mayhugh Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering.

Researchers started with a hemispherical glass dome to show how they could overcome the challenge of printing electronics on a curved surface. Using their custom-built 3D printer, they started with a base ink of silver particles. The dispensed ink stayed in place and dried uniformly instead of running down the curved surface. The researchers then used semiconducting polymer materials to print photodiodes, which convert light into electricity. The entire process takes about an hour.

McAlpine said the most surprising part of the process was the 25 percent efficiency in converting the light into electricity they achieved with the fully 3D-printed semiconductors.

"We have a long way to go to routinely print active electronics reliably, but our 3D-printed semiconductors are now starting to show that they could potentially rival the efficiency of semiconducting devices fabricated in microfabrication facilities," McAlpine said. "Plus, we can easily print a semiconducting device on a curved surface, and they can't."

McAlpine and his team are known for integrating 3D printing, electronics, and biology on a single platform. They received international attention a few years ago for printing a "bionic ear." Since then, they have 3D printed life-like artificial organs for surgical practice, electronic fabric that could serve as "bionic skin," electronics directly on a moving hand, and cells and scaffolds that could help people living with spinal cord injuries regain some function.

McAlpine's drive to create a bionic eye is a little more personal.

"My mother is blind in one eye, and whenever I talk about my work, she says, 'When are you going to print me a bionic eye?'" McAlpine said.

McAlpine says the next steps are to create a prototype with more light receptors that are even more efficient. They'd also like to find a way to print on a soft hemispherical material that can be implanted into a real eye.

McAlpine's research team includes University of Minnesota mechanical engineering graduate student Ruitao Su, postdoctoral researchers Sung Hyun Park, Shuang-Zhuang Guo, Kaiyan Qiu, Daeha Joung, Fanben Meng, and undergraduate student Jaewoo Jeong.

The research was funded by the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering of the National Institutes of Health (Award No. 1DP2EB020537), The Boeing Company, and the Minnesota Discovery, Research, and InnoVation Economy (MnDRIVE) Initiative through the State of Minnesota.

Summary: A team of researchers has, for the first time, fully 3D printed an array of light receptors on a hemispherical surface. This discovery marks a significant step toward creating a 'bionic eye' that could someday help blind people see or sighted people see better.

Top 5 Medical Technology Innovations

Against the backdrop of health care reform and a controversial medical device tax, medical technology companies are focusing more than ever on products that deliver cheaper, faster, more efficient patient care. They are also making inroads with U.S. Food & Drug Administration regulators to re-engineer the complex review and approval process for new medical devices.

Many in the industry have long felt overly burdened by what they consider to be an unnecessarily complex approval process. Critics claim it impedes innovation and delays the availability of better health care. To change that perception, the FDA last year announced a new Medical Device Innovation Consortium (MDIC) charged with simplifying the process of designing and testing new technologies. With input from industry, government, and other nonprofit organizations, public-private MDIC will prioritize the regulatory science needs of the medical device community and fund projects to streamline the process.

"By sharing and leveraging resources, MDIC may help industry to be better equipped to bring safe and effective medical devices to market more quickly and at a lower cost," says Jeffrey Shuren, M.D., J.D., director of the FDA's Center for Devices and Radiological Health.

As the regulators, politicians, and corporate executives hash out these details, industry engineers and scientists continue to push through new ideas for improving and managing human health. Every year, industry observers like the Cleveland Clinic and the medical device trade press single out their favorite technology trends. These thought leaders agree that today's best technologies strike a balance between reducing the overall cost of medical care and increasing safety and survival rates—and isn't that what health care reform is all about?

 Here are five emerging technologies to watch in the year ahead—and please visit AABME.org for up-to-the-minute developments on the field of bioengineering.

1. Cutting Back on Melanoma Biopsies.


 The MelaFind optical scanner from MELA Sciences

With the most deadly form of skin cancer, melanoma, a huge number of dangerous-looking moles are actually harmless, but has always been impossible to know for sure without an invasive surgical biopsy. Today dermatologists have new help in making the right call — a handheld tool approved by the FDA for multispectral analysis of tissue morphology. The MelaFind optical scanner is not for definitive diagnosis but rather to provide additional information a doctor can use in determining whether or not to order a biopsy. The goal is to reduce the number of patients left with unnecessary biopsy scars, with the added benefit of eliminating the cost of unnecessary procedures. The MelaFind technology (MELA Sciences, Irvington, NY) uses missile navigation technologies originally paid for the Department of Defense to optically scan the surface of a suspicious lesion at 10 electromagnetic wavelengths. The collected signals are processed using heavy-duty algorithms and matched against a registry of 10,000 digital images of melanoma and skin disease. 

2. Electronic Aspirin

 

The ATI Neurostimulator from Autonomic Technologies

For people who suffer from migraines, cluster headaches, and other causes of chronic, excruciating head or facial pain, the "take two aspirins and call me in the morning" method is useless. Doctors have long associated the most severe, chronic forms of headache with the sphenopalatine ganglion (SPG), a facial nerve bundle, but haven't yet found a treatment that works on the SPG long-term. A technology under clinical investigation at Autonomic Technologies, Inc., (Redwood City, CA) is a patient-powered tool for blocking SPG signals at the first sign of a headache. The system involves the permanent implant of a small nerve stimulating device in the upper gum on the side of the head normally affected by headache. The lead tip of the implant connects with the SPG bundle, and when a patient senses the onset of a headache, he or she places a handheld remote controller on the cheek nearest the implant. The resulting signals stimulate the SPG nerves and block the pain-causing neurotransmitters. 

 3. Needle-Free Diabetes Care

 

 The Symphony tCGM biosensor from Echo Therapeutics.

Diabetes self-care is a pain—literally. It brings the constant need to draw blood for glucose testing, the need for daily insulin shots and the heightened risk of infection from all that poking. Continuous glucose monitors and insulin pumps are today's best options for automating most of the complicated daily process of blood sugar management – but they don't completely remove the need for skin pricks and shots. But there's new skin in this game. Echo Therapeutics (Philadelphia, PA) is developing technologies that would replace the poke with a patch. The company is working on a transdermal biosensor that reads blood analytes through the skin without drawing blood. The technology involves a handheld electric-toothbrush-like device that removes just enough top-layer skin cells to put the patient's blood chemistry within signal range of a patch-borne biosensor. The sensor collects one reading per minute and sends the data wirelessly to a remote monitor, triggering audible alarms when levels go out of the patient's optimal range and tracking glucose levels over time.

4. Robotic Check-Ups

 

The Telemedicine System from InTouch Technologies.

A pillar of health reform is improving access to the best health care for more people. Technology is a cost-effective and increasingly potent means to connect clinics in the vast and medically underserved rural regions of the United States with big city medical centers and their specialists. Telemedicine is well established as a tool for triage and assessment in emergencies, but new medical robots go one step further—they can now patrol hospital hallways on more routine rounds, checking on patients in different rooms and managing their individual charts and vital signs without direct human intervention. The RP-VITA Remote Presence Robot produced jointly by iRobot Corp. and InTouch Health is the first such autonomous navigation remote-presence robot to receive FDA clearance for hospital use. The device is a mobile cart with a two-way video screen and medical monitoring equipment, programmed to maneuver through the busy halls of a hospital.

5. A Valve Job with Heart 

The Sapien transcatheter aortic valve from Edwards

The Sapien transcatheter aortic valve is a life-saving alternative to open-heart surgery for patients who need new a new valve but can't endure the rigors of the operation. Manufactured by Edwards Life Sciences (Irvine, CA), the Sapien has been available in Europe for some time but is only now finding its first use in U.S. heart centers—where it is limited only to the frailest patients thus far. The Sapien valve is guided through the femoral artery by catheter from a small incision near the grown or rib cage. The valve material is made of bovine tissue attached to a stainless-steel stent, which is expanded by inflating a small balloon when correctly placed in the valve space. A simpler procedure that promises dramatically shorter hospitalizations is bound to have a positive effect on the cost of care.

'Smart stent' detects narrowing of arteries

Researchers have developed a type of 'smart stent' that monitors even subtle changes in the flow of blood through the artery, detecting the narrowing in its earliest stages and making early diagnosis and treatment possible. 

For every three individuals who have had a stent implanted to keep clogged arteries open and prevent a heart attack, at least one will experience restenosis -- the renewed narrowing of the artery due to plaque buildup or scarring -- which can lead to additional complications. 

 

Now, a team led by UBC electrical and computer engineering professor Kenichi Takahata has developed a type of "smart stent" that monitors even subtle changes in the flow of blood through the artery, detecting the narrowing in its earliest stages and making early diagnosis and treatment possible.

"We modified a stent to function as a miniature antenna and added a special micro-sensor that we developed to continuously track blood flow. The data can then be sent wirelessly to an external reader, providing constantly updated information on the artery's condition," said Takahata.

The device uses medical-grade stainless steel and looks similar to most commercial stents. Researchers say it's the first angioplasty-ready smart stent -- it can be implanted using current medical procedures without modifications.

Research collaborator Dr. York Hsiang, a UBC professor of surgery and a vascular surgeon at Vancouver General Hospital, noted that monitoring for restenosis is critical in managing heart disease.

"X-rays such as CT or diagnostic angiograms, which are the standard tools for diagnosis, can be impractical or inconvenient for the patient," said Hsiang. "Putting a smart stent in place of a standard one can enable physicians to monitor their patient's health more easily and offer treatment, if needed, in a timely manner."

The device prototype was successfully tested in the lab and in a swine model. Takahata, who holds patents for the technology, says his team is planning to establish industry partnerships to further refine the device, put it through clinical trials and eventually commercialize it.

 

 

Australian researchers have developed a drone capable of measuring a person's breathing and heart rate from 60 metres away, an advance that may help during humanitarian crises.

The researchers led by Javaan Chahl from the University of South Australia (UniSA), showed that the drone was able to measure a subject's heart beat by using a camera to sense the top a person's head pulsing by approximately one millimeter with each beat, reports Xinhua news agency.

"Basically in a disaster, unfortunately you have to prioritise who's living, who's dead and perhaps who's dying, and this might allow a drone to map a scene and establish the general condition of people," Chahl told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC).

"The same software could do facial recognition, measure their heart rate after climbing up some stairs in the subway, and you could do that for 100,000 people a day," Chahl said.

The drones were created in conjunction with the Australian Defence Force (ADF) to be deployed during humanitarian crises.

However, Chahl said that the device could also be used for bad things like spying or weaponisation.

"If we can start doing these things, so can somebody who has a bad agenda," Chahl said.

"Somebody could take their data and do something with it, you could try to sell them something, you could deny them insurance, you could tell their employer."

 

 

The findings showed that people's eye movements reveal whether they are sociable, conscientious or curious, with the algorithm software reliably recognising four of the "Big Five" personality traits -- neuroticism, extroversion, agreeableness and conscientiousness.

"People are always looking for improved, personalised services. However, today's robots and computers are not socially aware so they cannot adapt to non-verbal cues," said Dr Tobias Loetscher from University of South Australia.

"This research provides opportunities to develop robots and computers so that they can become more natural, and better at interpreting human social signals," Loetscher added in a university statement. The research was done by the University of South Australia in partnership with the University of Stuttgart, Flinders University and the Max Planck Institute for Informatics in Germany,

Researchers tracked the eye movements of 42 participants as they undertook everyday tasks around a university campus.

The study provided new links between previously under-investigated eye movements and personality traits, delivering important insights for emerging fields of social signal processing and social robotics.

"There's certainly the potential for these findings to improve human-machine interactions," Dr Loetscher said.

Thanks to our machine-learning approach, we not only validate the role of personality in explaining eye movement in everyday life, but also reveal new eye movement characteristics as predictors of personality traits," said the researchers.

 

MIT researchers, including one of Indian-origin, have developed novel machine-learning techniques to improve the quality of life for patients by reducing toxic chemotherapy and radiotherapy dosing for an aggressive form of brain cancer.

Glioblastoma is a malignant tumour that appears in the brain or spinal cord, and the prognosis for adults is no more than five years.

Patients are generally administered maximum safe drug doses to shrink the tumour as much as possible, but they still remain at risk of debilitating side effects.

The new "self-learning" machine-learning technique could make the dosing regimen less toxic but still effective.

It looks at the treatment regimen currently in use, and finds an optimal treatment plan, with the lowest possible potency and frequency of doses that should still reduce tumour sizes to a degree comparable to that of traditional regimen, the researchers said.

"We kept the goal where we have to help patients by reducing tumour sizes but, at the same time, we want to make sure the quality of life -- the dosing toxicity -- doesn't lead to overwhelming sickness and harmful side effects," said Pratik Shah, principal investigator from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Boston, US.

The findings will be presented at the 2018 Machine Learning for Healthcare conference at Stanford University in California, US.

In simulated trials of 50 patients, the model comprising of artificially intelligent "agents", designed treatment cycles that reduced the potency to a quarter or half of nearly all the doses while maintaining the same tumour-shrinking potential.

Many times, it skipped doses altogether, scheduling administrations only twice a year instead of monthly.

However, the researchers also had to make sure the model does not just dish out a maximum number and potency of doses. Whenever the model chooses to administer all full doses, it gets penalized, so instead it chooses fewer, smaller doses.

If all we want to do is reduce the mean tumour diameter, and let it take whatever actions it wants, it will administer drugs irresponsibly," Shah said.Instead, we need to reduce the harmful actions it takes to get to that outcome.

This wearable sensor can detect stress level from sweat

 

 

We are particularly interested in sweat sensing, because it offers non-invasive and continuous monitoring of various biomarkers for a range of physiological conditions," said lead author, Onur Parlak from Stanford University, US.
 

This offers a novel approach for the early detection of various diseases and evaluation of sports performance," Parlak added, in the paper published in the journal Science Advances.

If the prototype version of the wearable device becomes a reality, it could allow people with an imbalance to monitor their own levels at home, the researchers said.

A fast-working test like this may also reveal the emotional state of young, even non-verbal, children who might not otherwise be able to communicate that they feel stress, they noted.

The team developed a stretchy, rectangular sensor around a membrane that specifically binds only to cortisol. Stuck to the skin, it sucks in sweat passively through holes in the bottom of the patch. A waterproof layer protects the patch from contamination.

The sweat pools in a reservoir, which is topped by the cortisol-sensitive membrane.

Charged ions like sodium or potassium, also found in sweat, pass through the membrane unless they are blocked by cortisol. It's those backed up charged ions the sensor detects, not the cortisol itself.

Samsung reportedly working on a gaming smartphone

 

The South Korean tech giant Samsung is rumoured to be working on a game-centric smartphone. The game-centric smartphones are not new, Nokia launched its N-Gaze gaming phone back in 2003, followed by Sony Ericsson's Xperia Play. In late 2017 Razer launched its gaming phone called Razer phone and other smartphone makers like Xiaomi and Asus followed the suit.

Now, it seems that Samsung is planning to join the league with its gaming smartphone. The recent rumour comes from tipster @MMDDJ. In a tweet, he claims that Samsung is working on a smartphone that is specially designed for gaming. However, he did not reveal any other key specifications of the alleged upcoming smartphone from Samsung. We can expect Samsung to equip the high refresh rate display just like other gaming smartphones available in the market. Going by the past record of the tipster, the speculation may be true.

The recent rumour also indicates that the upcoming SPen will come with Bluetooth functionality and other special features related to the gaming. We can assume that Samsung may include an SPen-like stylus in its upcoming gaming smartphone with additional functionalities.

Samsung Galaxy Note 9 rumoured specifications
On a related note, Samsung is all set to launch its Galaxy Note 9 smartphone at Unpacked Event scheduled for August 9 in New York. The smartphone is said to be powered by either company’s own Exynos 9810SoC or Snapdragon 845SoC coupled with 6GB RAM and 512GB of internal storage.
Talking about the camera, the upcoming Note smartphone is supposed to come with a dual rear camera module similar to the Galaxy S9 Plus and an 8-megapixel front camera.

Top IT trends in 2018

As we near the end of the year, it becomes time for taking stock and thinking about what the future will bring. Dimension Data’s technology experts have shared their thoughts on the forces that will re-shape digital business in 2018. 

Top IT trends in 2018: Cybersecurity

Trend 1: ‘Zero trust’ security is making a comeback

In 2018, we can expect to see significant disruption in the cybersecurity industry. Increasingly sophisticated cyberattacks are forcing organisations to turn to the zero trust security model.

With this approach, the IT team adopts a mindset of ‘we don’t trust anybody’. Only by explicitly allowing users to access systems can trust be established.

A decade ago, the ‘zero trust’ approach implied that the IT team could simply prohibit people from using non-corporate issued devices and applications. However, the more modern ‘zero trust’ model will accommodate individuals’ personal preferences.

However, it does mean that there’ll be more rigorous authentication measures in place requiring users to verify their identities through multiple layers of credentials. Enterprise systems will vigorously authenticate whether users are indeed entitled access to specific sets of data, before making them available.

To avoid bottlenecks and delays in getting tasks done, a cloud-based system can be implemented. This will enable a near-instantaneous authentication and verification process.

Re-examine policy and process

Organisations that embrace a ‘zero trust’ model will use it as an opportunity to re-examine their cybersecurity policies and processes. They’ll also increasingly turn to managed security services providers to augment their security monitoring and management capabilities. This will allow them to focus on deriving maximum value from their investments in security controls and resources, and ensure that they’re being applied appropriately and effectively.

 

Trend 2: Deception technologies become the security enablers of IoT and OT

Operational technology (OT) is increasingly enabling the Internet of Things (IoT) in industries such as automotive and manufacturing. But the sensors attached to OT devices are introducing a new element of cyber risk, and organisations are turning to deception technologies to raise their defences.

Most manufacturers aren’t considering security in the development phase of their products, and sensors are typically light-weight devices with minimal storage capacity, which makes embedding encryption chips into them unfeasible.

As a result, I predict that 2018 will see deception technologies playing a significant role in maintaining security across the supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) control system architecture, OT, and wider IoT infrastructure.

 

How do deception technologies work?

Deception technologies introduce thousands of fake credentials onto an organisation’s network, which makes it mathematically impossible for cybercriminals to gain access to a legitimate set of user identities.

Once a cybercriminal has used a fake credential generated by deception technologies, the security operations team receives an alert that an unauthorised user is lurking on the network. They can then immediately initiate incident response.

Deception technologies also allow organisations to determine exactly how the cybercriminals gained access to the network, and to analyse their subsequent pattern of attack.

Trend 3: Behavioural analytics and artificial intelligence demand a relook at identity

Thanks to a technique known as ‘deep learning’, the next 12-months will see us take behavioural analytics and artificial intelligence to a new level.

With deep learning, rather than providing a machine with algorithms, you can enable it to learn by itself. The potential of this technology was recently demonstrated when Google took the decision to turn off its machine learning toolset. Through deep learning, the machines were educating themselves to the extent that they had begun to create a new language which system developers didn’t understand.

Using deep learning, machines will start undertaking highly granular analyses of users’ activities.

For example, by analysing my online behaviour over a period of time, machines will be able to predict whether or not the person attempting to access my data or applications is indeed me.

This provides organisations with an additional layer of defence over and above standard authentication methods.

In 2018, I expect to see more security vendors starting to integrate artificial intelligence into their products to improve their ability to detect cyberthreats in this manner. 

Trend 4: Robo-hunters are the new norm

Most cybersecurity experts agree that it’s critical to have access to threat intelligence about the latest types of attacks and tactics. However, intelligence alone isn’t enough. Organisations must proactively ‘hunt down the enemy’.

In 2018, we’ll start seeing machines entering the enterprise. It’ll be the kind that my colleague, Mark Thomas, Dimension Data’s Group Cybersecurity Strategist, dubbed ‘robo-hunters’.

Automated threat-seekers

Essentially, robo-hunters are automated threat-seekers that can make decisions on behalf of humans. Enabled by artificial intelligence, they continuously scan an organisation’s environment for any changes that might indicate a potential threat.

They learn from what they discover and then take appropriate action, for example, by isolating a bad packet or compromised device.

I believe that the rise of robo-hunters will enable more businesses to move from a proactive to a predictive security posture. Many of our clients have invested in threat hunting personnel and capabilities and Dimension Data is already offering it as a service. Those organisations leading the charge are starting to look at ways to automate threat hunting cycles and are conducting retrospective analysis to identify patterns in historical incursions.

 

Trend 5: Blockchain is the disruptor

The opportunities and applications of Blockchain in the world of cybersecurity are only just emerging. It has significant potential to allow organisations to boost cybersecurity around user authentication and identity and access management.

Blockchain allows a digital ledger of transactions to be created and shared among participants via a distributed network of computers. The system is highly accessible and transparent to all participants ─ all transactions are publicly visible.

This means it’s possible for businesses to make Blockchain ‘corporately visible’ within their organisation so that they can see every transaction that takes place.

The Blockchain ledger can detect suspicious online behaviour and isolate the connection, giving the user restricted access until the transactions have been sanctioned by system administrators or the IT security team.

Essentially, Blockchain becomes the implementer of the ‘zero trust’ policy I mentioned earlier.

It also holds potential to assist in forensic investigations. For example, an organisation that had confidential intellectual property stolen can take their immutable ledger to court and prove that an unauthorised person extracted or copied a set of data.

Top IT trends in 2018: Digital Business

Ettienne Reinecke, Chief Technology Officer, and Scott Gibson, Group Executive, Digital Practice, share their thoughts on the forces that will re-shape digital business in 2018.

 

Trend 1: Artificial intelligence, machine learning, robotics, and virtual and augmented reality are delivering compelling and complementary outcomes

Artificial intelligence, machine learning, robotics, and virtual and augmented reality aren’t new concepts. However, until now we’ve been talking about it somewhat in isolation. Increasingly we’re seeing how these technologies collectively have the potential to deliver disruptive outcomes.

Let’s look at some examples: logistics giant, DHL, is successfully using machine learning, artificial intelligence, and augmented reality in its warehouse picking operations through the use of smart glasses.

The glasses place a display in front of the wearer’s eye, which provides a visual display of order picking instructions, the exact location of the goods in the warehouse, and where they should be placed on the cart. This has resulted in massive improvements in employee productivity and in accuracy of deliveries.

Use cases for augmented reality are moving into the consumer space. Air New Zealand is currently trialling a solution to improve how they serve their passengers.

As flight attendants walk down the aisle wearing augmented reality glasses, they immediately know each passenger’s details – how many miles they’ve flown, what their meal preferences are, and where their final destination is – all of which enhance their ability to provide a more personalised service.

 

Roaming robots

The true promise of robotics is starting to manifest. In the US, San Jose's Orchard Supply Hardware is using machine learning with robots connected to their inventory systems.

When you enter the store, you can walk up to the robot and communicate with it in normal language. The robot knows exactly where the items that you’re looking for are located and will escort you to the relevant aisle. It’s also 100% up to date with what goods the store currently has in stock.

 

Trend 2: Lack of programmability is hindering businesses’ ability to deliver on the potential of hybrid IT

We believe that organisations haven’t made as much progress as they’d like to in optimising their hybrid IT environments, partly due to limitations in their ability to leverage programmable technology.

In 2018, both applications and infrastructure will continue to become more programmable, but the pace needs to pick up. Why? Programmability delivers business benefits, such as reducing cost and human error that are too compelling to ignore.

We anticipate that infrastructure vendors that haven’t made their wares sufficiently programmable are going to see their market share being significantly eroded in 2018.

Automated managed services: a must-have

To successfully operate a hybrid IT environment, businesses will need highly automated managed services.

The traditional outsource managed services model is gone. Today, organisations expect an automated service managed from the cloud in a hybrid IT environment.

Companies don’t want to worry about whether technology resides on their existing on-premise equipment, on a provider’s cloud, or on a hyperscale cloud, or all of the above. They just want to consume it the way they want to, in a fully automated way.

Find out how we’ve helped Hirsch’s, Woolworths, and First Choice Global to optimise their hybrid IT environments.

 

Trend 3: Decentralised transaction models are breathing new life into cybersecurity and the Internet of Things (IoT)

Over the last year, blockchain has gone from strength to strength. In the financial services sector, we saw both the US and European capital markets moving onto Blockchain platforms in a large way, with similar activity in more conservative markets like Japan. Considering how conservative and compliance-focused this sector is, that’s quite remarkable.

Many people found it quite ironic that the cybercriminals that perpetrated the recent WannaCry ransomware attack could hold a federal government to ransom and demand to be paid in Bitcoin.

Bitcoin might be a crypto-currency, but as it’s based on blockchain, it’s an interesting use case. The fact that the cybercriminals ─ who invest a lot more in cybercrime than most companies do in cyberprotection ─ are confident that bitcoin provides a safe mechanism (i.e. its blockchain foundation) for the payment of ransoms, should give us an idea of just how secure the distributed ledger approach is.

We believe that blockchain has the potential to totally re-engineer cybersecurity, but that the industry has yet come to terms with it.

With a distributed ledger, cybercriminals don’t have a central database to attack. With an encrypted ledger distributed across numerous computers, all validating one another, where’s the perimeter? It’s an inherently more secure architecture.

 

Blockchain will deliver on the promise of IoT

In the year ahead, we believe that the potential for blockchain to deliver on the promise of IoT will become better understood because IoT requires a peer-to-peer mechanism to be practical and executable.

In the world of IoT you’re generating millions of small transactions collected from a distributed set of sensors.

It’s not feasible to operate these systems using a centralised transactional model, because it’s too slow, expensive, and exclusive. Once a sensor alert is received from a control system you have to be able to react to it, meter it, and bill for it instantly – all of which negates the viability of a centralised transactional authority.

We also expect to see interesting applications of Blockchain and IoT in the area of cybersecurity in the year ahead.

 

Trend 4: Surge in interest in software-defined wide area networks (WANs) while wireless is set to boom

In 2018, we expect to see recently released software-defined WAN technology gaining significant adoption. Some 40% of businesses across the globe will start to deploy software-defined wide area networks – up from just 2% in 2016.

This technology allows you to automate decisions, establish more granular sensitivity to the application and determine how best traffic should be handled. It can even adjust virtual architectures to match workloads or conditions in real-time.

The technology also allows for more informed decision-making about how to use either broad-based Internet or your own costlier, but more robust, traditional MPLS-based networks, thereby enabling a better cost/performance balance.

 

Wireless wins

In 2018, we can also look forward to a boom in new wireless technologies enabling IoT, which brings us a step closer to the dream of pervasive connectivity. Some of these advancements will include 5G and Gbps Wi-Fi, new controls, virtual beacon technology, and low-power, long-distance radio frequency.

Wireless is rapidly becoming pervasive in the enterprise, and even in larger spaces, such as campuses and shopping areas. More intelligent Wi-Fi providing application hooks simplifies the collection of rich control and metadata that drive applications and analytics, and impacts business processes.

We’ll start seeing more wireless-enabled processes. This technology can truly link the user to the application, and to the business process, leading to optimisation and new business model opportunities.

We also believe that networks, particularly on the edge, will become more intelligent especially when analytics becomes a stronger focus. 

Trend 5: Only organisations with the correct architectures and data structures will achieve digital supremacy

To achieve digital supremacy, organisations need to ensure that their basic architectures and data structures are in place.

Most will need a partner to help them get the basics right. Systems integration skills are key for incumbents hoping to compete effectively against new market entrants. A systems integrator can help you determine how to extract value from your legacy environment.

We also expect to see businesses increasingly seeking out a new genre of consulting and advisory services. In the past, businesses would look for advice on how to improve specific technology towers.

Today the conversations are quite different. Organisations are saying: ‘I want to move to digital, but how do I get there from here, quickly? Be very precise ─ I want to know what I should do this week, not what I should do in two years’ time. Which of all these moving parts should I look at first ─ operating profit improvements, cash flow, client experience, or my supply chain?’

 

The digital fight-back against disruptors

We’re seeing increasing numbers of cloud-born start-ups starting to be disrupted in certain industries.

We believe that established organisations that have proactively transformed into digital businesses, modernised their architectures, and embedded high levels of automation into their operations have a window of opportunity in the year ahead to claw back market share.

Top IT trends in 2018: Digital Infrastructure

The following digital infrastructure trends are insightful predictions provided by Kevin Leahy, Group SVP, Data Centre Business Unit.

 

Trend 1: Speed trumps cost

In today’s world of digital disruption, every business perceives itself as being under threat, and, as a result, most are making a conscious decision to choose speed over cost.

Organisations will enable acceleration in the following ways:

• IT leaders will intensify their efforts to identify and eliminate the inhibitors of speed.
• We’ll see enterprise IT leaders moving away from lengthy, in-depth total cost of ownership analyses and instead choosing the technology or platform that they can leverage the fastest.
• Organisations will identify the technologies and platforms that will deliver the business outcome they need at the required speed.

We’ll also see more businesses exploiting software-defined networking and network virtualisation across the network in the data centre, hybrid WAN, and the campus as part of their efforts to transform their networks.

 

Balancing act

These choices have to be made while taking into account the constraints of the organisation, like their own corporate policies, industry rules, and data privacy laws. They’ll also need to factor in the location of their users.

Ultimately, the challenge for organisations in 2018 will be to strike a balance between investment, technology, and governance rules, and their ability to execute at speed.

 

Trend 2: Leveraging tools that support innovation and differentiation is critical

In 2018, businesses need to embrace innovation by leveraging new tools that enable their developers to create new sources of competitive differentiation.

Developers need access to new tools and the flexibility to create business models. They have to be able to support new application types, using modern development and deployment tools, particularly in the area of containerisation.

Considering the pace of innovation in containers, I predict organisations that aggressively embrace these tools and make it available to their development teams will be winners. And those that fail to act will see their competitive edge being eroded.

 

Exploit the SaaS evolution – so you can focus on what differentiates you

Increasingly, we’ll see businesses that are successfully accelerating their digital transformation focusing on using SaaS for non-differentiating processes. This will allow them to reap the benefit of the continuous SaaS industry revolution, and the economies of scale and standardisation that these products afford them.

Using SaaS to ensure that their non-core focus areas are running optimally will enable organisations to focus their resources on creating and evolving their differentiation capability elsewhere – for example, in their manufacturing or CRM environments, or in the development of custom customer-facing applications.

 

Trend 3: The rise of the API economy

Increasingly, businesses are recognising the importance of APIs as an enabler to develop revenue-generating applications and services. This evolution has been dubbed ‘the rise of the API economy’.

In 2018, I predict that organisations will start to see the wisdom in standardising on a set of APIs. We’ll see IT decision-makers move away from evaluating tools, technologies, and services purely on the basis of their features and capabilities.

The API’s maturity and availability, and how easily it allows the implementation of processes, rather than performance will become more important. Increasingly, businesses are looking to exploit the software-driven nature of these environments.

 

It’s all about abstraction

In the year ahead, businesses will be challenged to keep up with the pace of change of APIs. They’ll need to ensure that they can invest in relevant programming to drive their business objectives.

The type and number of APIs that organisations select will depend on several factors, including the extent to which they want or need to abstract away the underlying technologies.

 

Trend 4: Shifting focus from technologies to services architectures

In 2018, in addition to investing in the appropriate APIs to enable abstraction, businesses will need to revisit their architectures and ensure that they’re fit-for-purpose and future-proof.

There’s a clear acceptance in the industry that hybrid IT is the model of the future. However, hybrid IT has significant architectural implications which organisations will need to address.

Over the last decade, IT teams have focused much of their energies on technology integration. The advent of hybrid IT has changed the paradigm: mastering hybrid IT requires you to instead focus on services integration. Most organisations’ existing architectures were not built with this theme in mind.

 

Composition of services

It’s important to determine which services must co-ordinate with others and how they all need work together to deliver the business outcome and a positive user experience.

If you attempt to bring together different services components without first implementing the appropriate architecture, you run the risk of delivering a poor, inconsistent user experience. As the services start to become more complex, your ability to scale it and deliver with quality, will be limited.

 

Trend 5: Push to manage the business value of data

In 2018, there’ll be an intensified focus on exploiting the value of data, and ensuring that it’s provided to those who need it, when they need it – this a truly data-centric view of IT.

The advent of all-flash storage means that there’s less need for organisations to be concerned about different storage types and tiers. In addition, today you can architect so that cost is not an issue, by moving to an all-flash option to make your business faster.

What’s more important is the fact that as organisations transform into digital business, the role of data is taking on greater significance. Now, the emphasis is on finding new value in your data – and being able to leverage the value of that data faster.

At the 2017 Tour de France, our data analytics platform incorporated machine learning and complex algorithms to combine live and historical race data. This provided deeper levels of insight during the 23-day event. It also provided cycling fans with a better understanding about the environments and circumstances in which riders perform best.

This is a good example of how the Internet of Things is enabling organisations to find new sources of data and to extract new value from it.

 

Trend 6: Programmable infrastructure everywhere

In recent years, developers’ focus has been on the level of computing requirements they anticipated they’d need, rather than networking and security considerations. Thanks to the advent of programmable data centre infrastructure, this will change in 2018.

We’ll see more businesses considering network and security requirements in the development phase. We’ll also see them programming their applications to take advantage of software-defined infrastructure.

Network and security services that enable you to move and protect your data can be provisioned to provide on-demand connectivity and security as applications flex, based on changes in business requirements. Infrastructure becomes a ‘living and breathing’ entity that enables the notion of digital business to become a reality.

The technology will allow organisations to challenge their infrastructure status-quo and rethink basic principles using flexibility, programmability and software-defined as cornerstones. This technology transformation could be used as a lever to unlock operational transformation, and in some cases, financial transformation through emerging IT consumption models.

Top IT trends in 2018: Hybrid Cloud

The following hybrid cloud trends are insightful predictions provided by Dan Greengarten, SVP, Sales, Cloud Services, and Alliances.

 

Trend 1: Transforming customer experiences and targeted business outcomes with the Internet of Things (IoT)

For IoT to deliver real business value, I believe it’s critical that organisations stop thinking about it as simply a collection of connected sensors and devices.

Companies focused on the business outcomes from the start of the project see real value as a result of their efforts. Organisations trying to solve many disparate business problems find that their lack of focus is less likely to lead to success.

 

Focus on business objectives at the outset

A key example of how the focus on key business objectives delivers real value is our work with Tour de France organisers, Amaury Sport Organisation (A.S.O.). From the outset, A.S.O. focused on bringing the race into the digital era. Their objective was to embrace the benefits of digital technologies and leverage it to protect broadcasting rights and open up new revenue streams.

The core of the solution is IoT: attaching GPS devices to every bike in the race peloton and relaying the location data back to a central location. However, the business value isn’t achieved from the devices alone. The value to A.S.O. derives is from services that turn raw data into information that the fans can use to better understand the challenges, tactics, and race strategy.

 

Trend 2: Hybrid cloud cost containment is a pervasive issue

Three to four years ago, many organisations made the decision to move a significant portion of their infrastructure, and anything new, into the public cloud. They assumed that this would enable them to drive out costs and reduce both operational complexity and headcount.

Today, many businesses have realised that few or none of these objectives have been met.

 

Cost containment strategy

In the next 12 months, we’ll see businesses carefully assessing the return on investment delivered by ‘generation 1’ cloud projects. They’ll also reduce and / or review their consumption-based opex budgets in favour of what could be developed in-house, this time using more intelligent tools. Rather than continuing to consume public cloud, many organisations will consider building private clouds.

 

Trend 3: Increasing understanding of the platform economy

Digital marketplaces are changing the face of business. Organisations will recognise the true potential of the platform economy, and begin to realise its impact on their operating models.

As more businesses shift to a ‘digital front end’, revenue-generating digital assets demand fundamental changes in organisational operating models. Running a digital business with platform-based services differs from traditional operating models.

 

A new risk paradigm

In the platform economy, the risk shifts from the consumer to the provider.

Businesses that operate platforms need to make significant upfront investments to build their platforms – before they receive any revenue. They need to change their commercial and pricing models to factor in new risks.

In the platform economy, sales cycles can be longer and generate less upfront fees. Organisations therefore need to think about how they manage cash flow fluctuations and how they remunerate their sales force.

 

Trend 4: Hybrid cloud solutions are becoming verticalised

Throughout 2018, we’ll see more vertical cloud solutions on the market. Smaller cloud providers are looking for ways to differentiate from the hyperscalers. They’ve realised that they need to find new ways to drive scale and grow market share via a deep vertical focus.

In the year ahead we can expect to see these smaller players investing significantly in industry-specific compliance regimes for different verticals to build credibility with their target market.

 

Comprehensive solutions for the entire XaaS stack

The result will be hybrid cloud offerings that span the entire spectrum of the XaaS stack and deliver a comprehensive solution for specific verticals.

These solutions will cover everything from the infrastructure layer, to platform tools that customers’ development teams can use to build new services without the fear of any compliance breaches, to applications delivering the service.

 

Trend 5: The rise of hybrid cloud management solutions

Businesses will continue to commit to multi-cloud architectures, both public and private, and from several different providers. While there are significant benefits to this approach, it can result in greater management complexity.

As a result, businesses are recognising the importance of having a defined set of management tools to run operations, and we can expect to see an increase in demand for hybrid cloud management solutions.

 

Standardising services

Specifically, organisations will invest in hybrid cloud management solutions allowing standard services to be created.

Businesses use cloud to deliver services to their internal users and/or their external customer base. If they’re operating a platform they need to standardise various components to deliver a particular offer. Hybrid cloud management tools allow this.

 

Trend 6: Industry skills and talent pool continue to shrink

The talent pool of people available to help organisations architect, implement, and operate hybrid cloud solutions will continue to shrink.

This shortage of skills will generate new opportunities for managed services providers that can deliver highly automated services. Why is automation so critical? The more a service provider can automate elements of a client’s IT environment, the lower the costs to deliver the service and the subsequent cost to go to market.

This also benefits the client. By delivering services to customers in a more automated manner, the costs of providing it is also reduced and it can be offered at a lower price-point.

 

Software development becomes the new ‘trade’

Software engineering will become the essential trade of the 2020s.

In 2018, we’ll start to see this manifesting in a war for talent. There’ll be a significant spike in demand for software development talent graduating from tertiary institutions, as organisations seek the skills required to build digital front-ends.

 

Trend 7: Expectation for service providers to deliver a unified, embedded cybersecurity posture ─ across all platforms and services

Organisations that appoint service providers to take on the management of their hybrid, multiple, dispersed, and potentially unrelated IT platforms, will expect them to enable a security posture that spans the entire platform.

 

Built in, not bolted on

Organisations will expect their service providers to offer robust security measures that cover on-premise and cloud-based assets, the network, and applications ─ all built into an intelligent security core.

In evaluating service providers, businesses should consider their capability to provide a holistic approach to cybersecurity and to identify threats and risks across multi-faceted, distributed architectures, including on-premise, cloud, and hybrid environments.

Providers should demonstrate an understanding of how digital infrastructure, digital workplaces, and cloud environments expose new risks. 

Top IT trends in 2018: Digital Workplaces

Joe Manuele, Group Executive, Customer Experience and Workplace Productivity; Alex Bennett, Customer Experience and Workplace Productivity Practice-lead: Productivity; and Dino Marasco: Customer Experience and Workplace Productivity: Go-to-Market Lead; share their thoughts on the top digital workplace trends in the year ahead.

 

Trend 1: Artificial intelligence driving voice-enabled virtual assistants in the enterprise

Artificial intelligence-driven virtual assistants such as Amazon’s Alexa, Apple's Siri, and Microsoft’s Cortana have been around for some time in the consumer world. These voice-activated helpers assist us to find information, and carry out a range of everyday tasks on our behalf.

These virtual assistants are now starting to make their way into the workplace. According to our recently published Digital Workplace Report, 62% of organisations expect virtual assistants to have a place in their companies in the next two years.

 

Voice is cool again

Because these virtual assistants are voice-enabled, they allow us to get things done much faster ─ you don’t have to log onto your computer and then onto some sort of system or application using a username and password to complete a task.

Imagine you wake up on a Monday morning, ready to tackle your working week. Your first meeting is only at 10:00 am, so you decide to spend an hour or so in your home office. One of the items on your list is to approve an employee’s expense claim. You simply say: ‘Cortana, please approve Mike’s expenses’ – and it’s done.

Just before setting off to the office, you ask Cortana to scan the traffic newsfeeds to check for any disruptions along your normal route, and if so, recommend the best alternative. If necessary, using automated messaging integrated into Microsoft Exchange, Cortana could also inform the colleagues who you’re meeting at 10:00 am that you may be late, or need to reschedule.

 

Trend 2: Smart buildings are evolving into smart workplaces

In 2018, we expect to see smart buildings evolving into what we call ‘smart workplaces’.

For example, by leveraging the Internet of Things, artificial intelligence, machine learning, and wireless virtual beacon technology, property owners can track which parts of a building have the greatest footfall and attach a higher rental price tag to those areas. They can even use data collected by sensors to negotiate new contracts with their office cleaning providers, based on the amount of dirt that accumulates in different areas.

Let’s return to your Monday morning arrival at the office to explore some of the other smart workplace innovations that we can look forward to in the year ahead…

As you enter your office parking garage, a smart parking system allocates you to a bay as close as possible to where your meeting is located. On entering the building, a biometric identity verification system, using a combination of voice and facial recognition, grants you access to the reception area.

Next, what’s known as ‘ambient artificial intelligence’ kicks in. The digital signage in the passageways identifies who you are and where you need to go and directs you to your meeting room.

By integrating with identity solutions such as Microsoft Active Directory and using voice and facial recognition, the room senses your arrival, and immediately brings the other attendees into the meeting via video. A smart board automatically shows the notes you’ve made during a meeting held the previous week. The lights dim, the blinds close, and your meeting begins.

 

Trend 3: Support of major vendors is driving adoption of Web real-time communication (RTC)

While Web RTC has been around for some time, we expect to see an increase in its adoption in 2018 because Apple and Microsoft ─ whose browsers are the most popular ─ are embracing the technology.

Web RTC allows you to enable a video meeting using only a web browser. You don’t need a client on your desktop, and attendees don’t need to worry about finding meeting call-in numbers and passwords. Everyone simply clicks on a link and joins the meeting via their respective browsers.

Web RTC will also provide new ways for organisations to communicate with and support their customers, driving greater levels of customer experience.

 

Trend 4: Video becomes the defacto

Video is becoming mainstream to the point where organisations are re-defining their workplaces to make it more collaborative and supportive of video.

Traditional workplaces typically include offices, cubicles, and meeting rooms. Increasingly we’re seeing a shift to workplaces that comprise of more shared spaces, commonly known as activity-based working. This could include huddle rooms and other small office spaces where people can collaborate and have video conferences.

 

Network considerations

While video is good for productivity, you need to consider the impact on the network. If you start video-enabling all your users and Web RTC becomes the primary way to communicate and collaborate, your supporting digital infrastructure needs to be able to cope.

 

Trend 5: From BYOD to BYOA ─ the next wave of individual empowerment

Next on your Monday afternoon agenda is a catch up with Sanjay, a 20-something data analyst on your team, who’s based in India. This meeting takes the form of a video-enabled WhatsApp call from a hot desk.

When Sanjay joined the organisation, he quickly expressed his frustration with internally provided tools and requested that you rather meet via FaceTime or WhatsApp. He’s also sourced his own powerful data visualisation software to enable him to quickly ‘slice and dice’ data and conduct in-depth analysis, rather than rely on spreadsheets.

This scenario is indicative of a trend that we believe we’ll start to see accelerating in 2018. Individuals are increasingly asserting their desire to communicate and collaborate however they want, using their choice of tools. Employees ─ particularly millennials don’t just prefer to use their own devices, they also want to use their own applications.

This is a trend that’s been dubbed ‘bring your own app’ or BYOA.

 

What’s the impact on the IT team?

BYOA means that what IT needs to deliver to the business is going to change.

IT teams shouldn’t deploy technology just for the sake of it. They should firstly focus on understanding what a functional team or employee needs to perform their particular tasks and ensure that they feel empowered to use it, while following regulatory and compliance requirements.

IT’s metrics will also need to change. It’s no longer just about keeping track of uptime of the environment. Integrated business outcome KPIs are required regarding adoption, usage, pipeline increase, and speed of sale so that, for example, you can demonstrate that the productivity platform deployed is increasing sales.

Monday’s been a productive but tiring day so you decide to head home. As you approach your apartment, you turn your thoughts to the evening ahead. You decide that a quiet night in with a pizza and a Netflix movie is just what you need – all arranged by your virtual assistant of course!